by Joe Wilhelm Jr.
Staff Writer
The Prime Osborn III Convention Center was alive with the whirring and beeping of a fleet of forklifts Monday as the first First Coast Safety Conference and Forklift Rodeo was hosted by the First Coast Manufacturers Association (FCMA).
Team and individual competitors operated forklifts during a series of tasks and obstacle courses in the exhibit hall of the convention center paying attention to safe operation and their time to complete each task.
“We have held conferences before, but nothing of this magnitude,” said Lad Daniels, president of FCMA. “This is the first time we combined a regional safety conference, forklift rodeo and general meeting of our members at the same time.”
Daniels lauded event chair Phil Norman for pulling the event together.
“I’ve been going to the National Safety Congress for the last 18 years,” said Norman. “I learned a lot there and noticed that we didn’t have anything like this here. The rodeo is a good way to bring employees in and have them showcase their skills.”
Teams from Georgia Pacific, Vistakon, Colomer, Patterson Logistics and Coastal Maritime competed as well as individual competitors from Rex Corporation, W.W. Gay, Jo-Kell, Inc., Portion Pac, Johns Manville Corporation and Vulcan Materials- Florida Rock.
Operators had to complete tasks which included: retrieving loaded pallets from shelving and placing them in a simulated trailer bed, maneuvering through an obstacle course with a loaded pallet without touching any of the obstacles. Competitors were judged on time and safety. Wrong moves added seconds to their time.
“They are being judged more on safety than they are on speed,” said Daniels. “We hope to make this an annual event. With the development of the port and manufacturing in Jacksonville, this is great experience for the workforce. It is a natural fit.”
This event wasn’t all about running forklifts through their paces; there were plenty of opportunities to learn about what was going on in the industry. Speakers covered topics including: facility site security, managing corporate return to work programs, protective clothing requirements, common sense crime prevention strategies and hazardous materials transportation update. This slate of speeches was rounded out by an update from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration(OSHA).
FCMA represents nearly 1,800 manufacturers and their over 40,000 employees on Florida’s First Coast. The organization’s goal is to promote the importance of manufacturing on the economy of the First Coast and to offer educational and training opportunities and a political voice for its members.
The latter helped the organization contribute to the process that developed the Lower St. Johns River Basin Management Action Plan (BMAP), which was applauded by Governor Charlie Crist in Jacksonville on Monday. The FCMA plans to continue its participation in the process, “to insure equal consideration for our industry when it comes to discharge allocation.”
“The joy of that process was that there has been such a wide range of stakeholders in that group providing input,” said Daniels. “If you would have told me at the beginning that all the stakeholders would still be at the table at the end of the discussion, I would have called you a liar. They did an extremely good job of holding that group together for so long.”
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